September 2006, Assen (Holland) – After a three-week break, the World SBK Championship is on the move once more. The four classes are ready to face arguably the most prestigious circuit in the series, frequently called the “The university of motorcycling” - a venue which has been redesigned for this season. In 2005 Chris Vermeulen and Honda won both SBK races, in what is a home event for the Ten Kate team.
This time the contenders will be many and various and each will start the weekend with great expectations of at least one first place finish.
Haga and Bayliss are the two main contenders for the title, while third place man James Toseland is surely thinking about renewing his contract with the Ten Kate team which he joined this season. Together with these riders Andrew Pitt has also proved to be irrefutably fast on his Yamaha, and will doubtless be helping “Nitro Nori” to shrink the gap to the leader Bayliss, while another Australian, Corser (racing with the number one plate), will be working in conjunction with his team mate Kagayama to score more podiums, and shut down the rumors about his future.
An interesting weekend is promised, and one that could also provide surprises from several other riders, like Klaffi Honda rider Alex Barros, the three Kawasaki contenders or Italian Lorenzo Lanzi, for example.
This being the Netherlands, weather may also play an important role.
It is always hard to forecast the weather in this part of the world and a brilliant result would be simply to have the same consistency of underfoot conditions for the whole weekend, allowing the teams to find an optimum setup for the race. Once again, setup will be the key to ultimate race performance: the 4,750m Assen track will prove to be very demanding for the riders - and for the tyres too - and the right setup will grant the tyres both better and longer lasting performance.
For this round Pirelli will bring three different solutions of front tyre for the SBK class (as always every rider will have at his disposal 11 front tyres plus rubber for the two races) in the usual size of 120/75. Two of those fronts were also available at Brands Hatch while the other one is a well-known solution available on the global market under the name of Pirelli Diablo Superbike “SC2”. (The “A” for Assen was the “C” in Brands, while the “C” was the “D” at Brands). On the rear there will be four available solutions (plus a qualifier). Three different compounds, but the “B” (only decided on after the Brno race) has also been used on the bigger, 200 mm tyre, already used this year on other racetracks like Misano.
In Supersport the fight will, if anything, be even harder, with Curtain and Charpentier racing for the world title with their Yamaha and Honda machines.
Two fronts and two rears will also be available for Supersport, a class which races on Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa, and counting the Superstock 600 Diablo Corsa III and the Superstock 1000 Dragon Supercorsa, Pirelli will bring almost 6,000 units in total to Assen.
SBK: Race 1:1, Vermeulen - Honda CBR 1000 RR - Winston Ten Kate Honda - 33’36.029
2, Toseland - Ducati 999F05 - Ducati Xerox - +3.396
3, Haga - Yamaha YZF R1 - Yamaha Motor Italia - +4.876
SBK: Race 2:1, Vermeulen - Honda CBR 1000 RR - Winston Ten Kate Honda - 33’34.053
2, Haga - Yamaha YZF R1 - Yamaha Motor Italia - +0.085
3, Toseland - Ducati 999F05 - Ducati Xerox - +3.318
World Supersport: 16 laps1, Foret - Honda CBR 600RR - Team Megabike - 34’37.800
2, Charpentier - Honda CBR 600RR - Winston Ten Kate - +0.258
3, Fabrizio - Honda CBR 600RR - Team Megabike - +1.109
FIM Superstock: 11 laps1, Polita - Suzuki GSXR 1000 - Celani – Suzuki Italia - 23’51.323
2, Van Keymeulen - Yamaha YZF R1 - Yamaha Motor Germany - +1.508
3, Roccoli - Yamaha - YZF R1 - Yamaha Motor Germany - +6.754
FIM Superstock 600: 9 laps1, Corti - Yamaha YZF R6 - Trasimeno - 20’30.263
2, Forner - Honda CBR 600 RR - Alapont Competition - +6.859
3, Antonelli - Kawasaki ZX6RR - Lightspeed Kawasaki - +7.037
Related Linkswww.pirellimoto.com
Related News
